A dialysis apparatus as a blood purification apparatus, in general, includes primarily a blood circuit provided with an arterial blood circuit to which an arterial needle is attached to an end thereof and a venous blood circuit to which a venous needle is attached to an end thereof, a dialyzer interposed between the arterial blood circuit and the venous blood circuit to purify the blood flowing the blood circuit, a blood pump provided in the arterial blood circuit and a dialysis device which can supply the dialyzer the dialysate for blood purification.
Also, a saline bag containing a priming solution (physiological saline) is provided between the end of the arterial blood circuit and the blood pump connected through a saline line to be able to perform cleaning/priming before the dialysis treatment and fluid replacement during the dialysis treatment. Further, for example, in parallel with the washing/priming operation, the arterial needle and venous needle are applied to a patient's shunt (access blood vessel) and after the priming operation, the arterial needle and the venous needle, which are still applied to the patient, are connected to the end of the arterial blood circuit and the end of the venous blood circuit, respectively, while the saline line is closed.
Then, by activating the blood pump while supplying the dialysate, the patient's blood reaches the arterial blood circuit, dialyzer and venous blood circuit through the arterial needle, and, thereafter, restored to the body of the patient through the venous needle. Thus the hemodialysis treatment is carried out while circulating the patient's blood extracorporeally. Because the art of connecting the needles, which have been applied to the patient, to the ends of the blood circuits after the priming operation is not related to known published inventions, no reference for prior arts is cited here.